SERIE A MATCH REPORT

Lazio scraped a 1-1 home draw against Torino under the driving rain, but the Granata wasted golden opportunities.

Both these sides had complaints about refereeing decisions at the weekend, so tempers were running high. Hernanes and CristianLedesma were suspended after their dismissals against Fiorentina, joining the injured Ederson and goalkeeper Federico Marchetti. FrancelinoMatuzalem was still frozen out following a contract dispute, so Vladimir Petkovic had to reinvent his midfield and gave TommasoRocchi a rare start. Torino’s GianlucaSansone sat out a ban with Angelo Ogbonna, Giuseppe Vives, Suciu and Masiello unavailable. They had picked up one point from the last three rounds and had beaten Lazio only four times in the previous 20 meetings.

There were fears this game would be rained off, but the match started regularly despite heavy rainfall and large puddles.

Torino took a shock lead at the Olimpico after just 10 minutes, as the Laziodefence was so focused on Rolando Bianchi that they forget about KamilGlik, allowing him a free header from a corner.

Alessio Cerci incredibly failed to make it 2-0 on the stroke of half-time, as he went clear on goal with the counter-attack and dribbled round the goalkeeper, but hesitated and allowed Albano Bizzarri to prod it off his feet, then hesitated again when regaining possession.

Cerci tested Bizzarri again after the restart, but Lazio equalised on the counter-attack. The Candreva ball rolled across to Mauri on the edge of the area was not intercepted and the midfielder hit a cool left-foot finish.

Rocchi thought he was going to score when springing the offside trap and he went round the goalkeeper, but narrowed the angle too much and hit the side-netting.

Rocchi kept the ball in play at the by-line and set up Mauri, but the shot was too central and simple for Jean-Francois Gillet.

Rodriguez charged down a Rocchi strike, but the veteran Lazio striker in the final minutes when firing wide from a tight angle.